


Game Night Prep: Building Character

by Kiiratam



Series: Game Nights at Beacon Academy & Beyond [1]
Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), RWBY
Genre: Bumbleby Week 2020 (RWBY), Canon Compliant, F/F, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-05
Updated: 2020-06-05
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:36:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24550939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiiratam/pseuds/Kiiratam
Summary: Blake is making her first character forFortresses & Froghemoths, and fortunately, she's got Yang to help her.For Bumblebee Week 2020, Day 4: AU Day.Takes place between Volumes 1 and 2. (My BMBLB fic index)
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long
Series: Game Nights at Beacon Academy & Beyond [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1482323
Comments: 10
Kudos: 59





	Game Night Prep: Building Character

"So I finished reading the setting and class sections, and I have a couple of ideas." Blake pulled the enormous tome - that was the only word for it - out of her bag.

  
Sitting in the grass next to her, Yang grunted in surprise. "Already? Wow, you read quick."

  
"It's dense, but not bad compared to technical manuals." _Especially Atlesian ones._

  
"I mean, it kind of is one. Just for a game." Yang shrugged. "But yeah, it's not bad, compared to X-Hairs or the earlier editions. So, what looked fun?"

  
Blake pulled out her notebook, and flipped to the notes she'd taken. Mostly not during class. "I thought the Ulmish Antiprimacy looked interesting. And horribly corrupt."

  
"Yeah, the Ulmish are _bad_. And hypocritical, too, because they're anti-magic, but they equip their elites with magical gear."

  
"And the Riverine Orka had a-" Blake paused. "I don't want to call it 'good', but a _different_ system of morality. It might be fun to play around with that."

  
Yang nodded. "It looks like 'might makes right', but it's much more complicated than that. And they're really dangerous in close combat."

  
Skimming over her notes, Blake said, "There were a _lot_ of classes, and most of them looked fun. Did you have any suggestions?"

  
"Uh, yeah, they've got a table that groups them by complexity." Yang grabbed the _Fortresses & Froghemoths_ rulebook and opened it to the index, searching. "I'd go with one of the simple ones for your first character. You can always add complexity as we level up." She paused, looking up with worry in her eyes. " _If_ we level up. Ruby's a pretty ruthless Fortress Master." Flipping to a particular page, Yang passed it back to Blake.

  
There were still too many to pick from. "What were you going to play?" _I can just pick something that compliments Yang's character._

  
"Normally? One of the knight classes - marshal, hussar, palatine guard, gish, even dragoon sometimes. I like having a horse, even if I usually can't bring it into the fortress. And you can get a squire fairly early, which is important when it's just me and Ruby."

  
"You'll have me this time. And Weiss." Blake wasn't sure that Weiss was really going to play a game with them, even after Ruby had used the magical words 'team-building exercise.'

  
Yang flopped over on her side. "Yeah, but you two are newbies. I don't know how much help you'll be."

  
"Isn't the whole point that we're supposed to work as a team?" 

  
"I guess so. It's just going to be an adjustment for me." Rolling onto her back, Yang started making sweeping motions at the sky. "I'm a lone wolf! A solitary wanderer, with only my noble steed and my valor for company!"

  
"And your squire."

  
"And whatever mercenaries, charmed or otherwise bamboozled enemies, and vicious attack animals I can muster." Yang tilted her head up to fix Blake with her gaze. "Look, it's a dangerous game."

  
"Uh huh." Blake glanced down at the rulebook. The way Yang was talking about it sounded very different from how the book presented it. "Is it normally just a tactics game? What about the role-playing?"

  
Yang shrugged. The motion wasn't exactly clear, given she was still lying on her back. "Ruby isn't big on it. But we can try it, if you're interested." She smirked. "I'll be the shy, innocent schoolgirl-"

  
Blake hastily interrupted. "Not what I meant!" Especially since Yang wasn't going to be an innocent _anything_ , not with that smile.

  
"Well, I'm _awfully_ sorry, Mrs. Belladonna. Is there _any_ way I can make it up to you, professor?" 

  
Taking refuge behind the raised rulebook, Blake tried to ignore how warm her cheeks were getting. She tried to get them back on track. "Can our characters know each other?"

  
"Yeah, sure. What were you thinking, siblings? Or we were apprenticed to the same teacher?"

  
At least Yang was easily diverted from her teasing. ...Though if she saw the color of Blake's face, she might change her mind. Blake kept the book up, and offered another suggestion. "Maybe we broke out of prison together?"

  
"Oooh, good one! Why were we in prison, though?"

  
"If we were both Ulmish, we could be in prison for having magic."

  
Yang's voice took on a thoughtful tone. "Their prisons are pretty high security, though. What if one of us was a prisoner, and the other was a guard? It'd be easier to justify to Ruby."

  
_That made sense._ Feeling less flushed, Blake cautiously lowered the book.

  
"Oh good, I was wondering if you had a face anymore. It's weird talking to a book. Mostly when it talks back." Yang had sat back up again, and was grinning at her. "Did you want to be the mage, or the guard?"

  
"Either one. Just don't start - _that_ kind of roleplaying."

  
Snorting, Yang said, "The first one's free. You'll have to ask if you want more. Can I see the book?"

  
Blake passed it over, and waited as Yang leafed through it. _I just... don't know how to react to her flirting. Is it fake? It seems fake. She's just doing it for laughs. Or to make me blush._

  
"I've never actually played an Ulmish Iron Inquisitor before." Yang held the book out for Blake to take back. "But it looks like fun. All the usual knight tricks, with some healing and some neat anti-mage powers. So I'll be the guard."

  
"So if I'm a mage-" Trailing off, Blake tried to think of an interesting character. One who could measure up to those in _Ninjas of Love_ , or _The Man With Two Souls_. "Anyone can manifest magic, right?"

  
"Yup. Kind of like a Semblance; it emerges under stress, but not always."

  
_Irony. Irony was a good start._ "What about a priest of the Iron Inquisition? He's been learning about the evils of magic for years, and then he turns out to be a mage himself?" Blake needed the character to be male. It created distance between herself and her character. Faunus oppression and mage oppression weren't the same thing. The latter didn't actually exist, for one. But Blake had always heard to write what you know, so -

  
"Ehh, the pure caster classes are kind of complicated. And they tend to explode if a monster looks at them, at least early on. How about one of the hero classes?" Yang reached over and flipped to the appropriate page. "They're a good blend of melee, ranged, magic, support, everything. You can find out what you like, and build into that."

  
Blake skimmed the text. "Is there a Ulmish hero class?" She didn't see one.

  
"Uhhh, not really? I mean, they're kind of an evil empire, so it's mostly for characters to fight against. The Iron Inquisitor is only a class because there's a famous one in some tie-in fiction, and she-" Yang stopped, waved that idea off. "Apart from magic, what do you want to do?"

  
"Team support?" _That is the whole point of this, and it seems like Yang's used to being by herself. And so am I. ...And Weiss is Weiss._

  
_She **has** been getting better._

  
"Okay, so that's a thaumaturge." Yang flipped ahead a few pages. "What kind of magic did you want?" She pointed at a table listing the options.

  
There was a _reason_ this book was hundreds of pages long.

  
Seeing her face, Yang tried to reassure her. "A lot of the difference is just style. The Qigong Thaumaturge does stuff with needles and Aura, the Bleak Thaumaturge has cold spells and focuses on debuffs and mitigation, but they're all pretty similar."

  
_Back to irony, since I **still** have too many options._ Blake half remembered something from the overview of Ulmish culture, so she kept her place with her hand and flipped back through the book, looking for it.

  
Yang seemed content to let her work, sitting quietly.

  
_Here it is_ :

>   
>  "There is no music in the Ulmish soul but the clash of steel on steel, and the thunder of marching boots."

  
She flipped back to the Thaumaturge, and quickly scanned the entry on the Lyric Thaumaturge.

>   
>  "Lyrical magic arises from an awareness of the music of the world - the cadence of a walk, the gentle sounds of a brook. When it fully awakens, the mage cannot keep silent any longer, as music leaps from their mouth unbidden. With practice, a Lyric Thaumaturge can call upon the music within all things, bringing them into harmony with themselves, or even tearing them apart with discordance."

  
"I think I like the Lyric Thaumaturge."

  
Yang snorted. "Did you read the part where you have to sing all your lines?"

  
_What?!_

  
Blake bent back over the book, reading closely. 

  
_I'm not going to try to sing in front of everyone! Especially when Weiss is an actual singer!_

  
After a moment of frantic looking, Blake had made a determination. "It doesn't say that."

  
"Oh, it doesn't?" Yang put on a bewildered face. "They must have added it in the errata. Or was it last edition?"

  
Blake rolled her eyes, and tried to get back to business. "So why did your character help my character escape prison?"

  
"Oh, that's easy." She batted her eyelashes. "I was so smitten by your - what do you look like?"

  
"Um? Tall, dark, and handsome?" 

  
"Your tall, dark, handsomeness. I just fell helmet over sabatons in love."

  
Blake sought refuge in the book again. "It also says I can charm people with magic."

  
"There you go! It was your charming looks and your charming magic - that you may or may not have been using on purpose." Yang shrugged, though Blake only caught that in her peripheral vision. "I can build for charm vulnerability, so that works. Did you want to build for the whole super-suave-romantic type?"

  
"That sounds fun." _I can try to be really dramatic about it. That might be funny for everyone else._ "Is there something I can take to make me the world's greatest lover?"

  
Yang burst out laughing, and the sound of it rang in Blake's ears, conjuring up a smile. 

  
Covering her mouth, Yang managed to subside into just an enormous grin. "Yep! We can do that! Here, let me find the rules." She took the rulebook back, and started paging through it intently. "I think I remember where those feats are..."

  
"Hey, Yang?"

  
"Yeah?"

  
"Thanks. I don't think I'd be able to do this by myself."

  
"There are a _lot_ of rules. Ruby and I have had a decade to learn them." Yang shrugged. "Besides, you've given me a chance to try something different. And I've never really done the whole role-playing thing before. The game kind, I mean." She added, probably just to herself, "Or the other kind."

  
Before Blake could ask about that - or not ask about that - or convince herself to decide either way - Yang found what she was looking for. 

  
"Okay, here are your options -"

  
Blake started taking notes.


End file.
